Grown Ups 2 Movie Review

Can you keep having wild fun with your buddies when you leave childhood behind? The grown guys of Grown Ups 2 hope so and they take their teen kids along for the ride.

Revisiting the Families

It’s the last day of school before summer and the childhood buddies from the original Grown Ups movie all now live in the suburban town where they grew up but life is still not perfect in the ‘burbs. Apparently early-retired from Hollywood, Lenny (Adam Sandler) and his hot wife Roxanne (Salma Hayek) and their kids (including Cameron Boyce from TV’s “Jessie”) find a huge deer in their house and freak.

Adam Sandler hugs son Cameron Boyce

Eric (Kevin James) tries not to discourage his obviously super stooopid young son and flatters his daughter Donna’s ugly, self-designed light-up “go-go” boots while Kurt (Chris Rock) deals with his wife forgetting their anniversary and his toddler son’s poo-filled diaper and Marcus (David Spade) meets Braden (Hunger Games’Alexander Ludwig) the son he never knew he had; a huge, angry kid who scares him.

Crushes, Bullies and Fratboys

Lenny’s teen son Greg is crushin’ on hot Nancy (Halston Sage) but is afraid to ask her out, a nerd asks Charlotte (China Anne McClain) out and Keithie (Cameron Boyce) is bullied by a huge guy on the school bus. The adults deal with their own problems: Eric is spending more time with his nurturing mom than his wife, Roxanne wants another baby and the guys are longing for their more exciting high school days while reuniting with some bad boys from their childhood who are now the town cops (Shaquille O’Neal plays one of them).

Halston as Nancy in Grown Ups 2

Fratboys take over the adult guys’ favorite swimming hole in a big stone quarry and their leader (Twilight’s Taylor Lautner) challenges them to jump off a high cliff into the water naked. Of course, they do. Angry that his newly-discovered dad lied to him to keep from spending time with him, Braden trashes the frat house making the guys think Lenny and his pals, including Braden’s dad, did it!

Taylor Lautner and fratfriends tease a townie kid

The ‘80’s Party

In addition to a huge fight between the party-crashing fratboys and everybody else, Lenny’s ‘80’s party includes him finally getting even with the bully who haunted his childhood when the guy decides to bond with him and they “fake” a fight which Lenny fake-wins. The same deer from the first scene attacks Taylor Lautner with disastrous results and Charlotte gets to show off her singing talent while Nancy finally kisses a grateful Greg, Keithie overcomes his bully and Marcus and son buddy up.

Taylor Lautner challenges the adult guys

Wrapping Up

Way more goes on in the Grown Ups 2 story than I had space to mention but there are more “ewwwww”, gross pottie humor moments in the film than truly funny ones. Sure, you’ll have some laughs and you might escape summer boredom while you identify with some of the young teens enjoying a first beer, first date/kiss and suffering a first bully etc.

Adam and family get a kitchen surpriseCourtesy of Tracy Bennett

You might also have fun seeing Twilight hottie Taylor Lautner play a silly, macho fratboy jock who gets to throw some pretty awesome martial arts moves in the movie and show that he can do comedy or you might like hearing like two seconds of China McClain from “A.N.T. Farm” singing.

China Anne McClain as CharlotteCourtesy of Tracy Bennett

The story is all over the place as we cut to each family’s personal problems/experiences and it doesn’t all come together really until the big ‘80’s party at the end.

Let’s get real: for a popcorn-munching, mindless, silly escape time at the Cineplex, you will probably enjoy the film but we’ve gotta go 2 out of 5 stars.